I have just received an email from Shelby Grieve about changes to the advanced certifications. It seems Microsoft discontinues them. These were the very first exams which cannot be made by using braindumps and provided real value! Another hand, HR professionals were/are not aware the value of these exams, but this is another story I can write about.
Anyway, it is not fair what Microsoft is doing with these certs: I have had to fly to London for making knowledge exam and 2-3 weeks ago they announced that this exam is available in my country. Now they are announcing the end! WTF??? I spent too much money money/time on that. It would be great from Microsoft if they offer very high discount for MCM exams and a much bigger for those who try to retake! I need to reconsider all future exams, I may spend this money to something else.
Update: here is the email I got in full
Dear Candidate,
We are contacting you to let you know we are making a change to the Microsoft Certified Master, Microsoft Certified Solutions Master, and Microsoft Certified Architect certifications. As technology changes so do Microsoft certifications and as such, we are continuing to evolve the Microsoft certification program. Microsoft will no longer offer Masters and Architect level training rotations and will be retiring the Masters level certification exams as of October 1, 2013. The IT industry is changing rapidly and we will continue to evaluate the certification and training needs of the industry to determine if there’s a different certification needed for the pinnacle of our program.
You are receiving this mail because you have taken a Microsoft Certified Master or Microsoft Certified Solutions Master exam but have not yet passed the necessary exams to earn the certification.
If you are prepared and ready to take the exam, immediately schedule to take your remaining exams through Prometric at www.prometric.com, or with our Advanced Cert team at advcert@microsoft.com. You will no longer be able to take these exams after Oct. 1, 2013 so we will waive the ‘waiting period’ to retake an exam that has previously been enforced. Don’t delay.
We thank you for your commitment to Microsoft technologies and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
It makes no sense to do any certification any longer, since technology changes and Microsoft is killing all valuable certification. I will ask them for a huge discount anyway, see how they react :-) I will upadte the post as soon as I got feedback.
Update agian: I was able to find out Bob Taylor’s announcement about exam retirements. He wrote the followings:
If you have been trying to decide whether or not to pursue your MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 certification this may help you make the decision.
The MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Knowledge Exam will be retired on January 1, 2014. At that point in time, you must pusue the MCSM: Data Platform certification.
The MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Lab Exam retirment date has not been set yet. So, if you are able to pass your MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Knowledge Exam before the retirement date you can still take the MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Lab Exam.
Approximately 12-15 months after the release of the MCSM: Data Platform Lab Exam, the MCM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Lab Exam will be retired.
Original post can be read at: http://blogs.technet.com/b/themasterblog/archive/2012/09/11/mcm-microsoft-sql-server-2008-knowledge-exam-retirement-date-announced.aspx
Update: Jen Stirrup opened an MS Connect to save master level certs. Please vote at here: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/799431/please-dont-get-rid-of-the-mcm-and-mca-programs
Update: Tim Sneath responded to the #BringBackMCM connect item. Well, MSFT has been changed the MCC – Microsoft Community Contributor – program too and now it is a *badge only*. I afraid that this may happen with advanced certifications too. He wrote the followings as a reason to close this program:
The truth is, for as successful as the program is for those who are in it, it reaches only a tiny proportion of the overall community. Only a few hundred people have attained the certification in the last few years, far fewer than we would have hoped. We wanted to create a certification that many would aspire to and that would be the ultimate peak of the Microsoft Certified program, but with only ~0.08% of all MCSE-certified individuals being in the program across all programs, it just hasn't gained the traction we hoped for.
Well, this certification has a good pre-filter: cost and prerequisites. MSFT cannot expect to have everybody at MCM level. This should not be profit oriented and doable by anybody neither.
Update 01/09/2013: I will not retake the the exam and do not care any further. Thank you all who responded to the connect item and supported the program. Special thanks to all who provided quality training materials, articles, white papers helping to others. I learned one thing for sure: I will never ever set a certification as my goal. I do not mind those hours I spent learning because the skills I developed in preparing.
Thanks for reading.